topic Re: Date showing as numeric at input in SAS Programming

Date showing as numeric at input

Q1983 — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 00:02:47 GMT

%LET inputlist= INPUT

State : $CHAR2.

Servicer : $CHAR25.

Date : /*$CHAR10.

The above is a snippet of code. It handles input from a share folder in which the date is inputted as a numeric. However because it is not recognized as an actual date the field shows a blank for that value. The only way I know around this is to read it in as a character then attempt to convert to a date. Is there a way to convert this to a date at initial input instead? I tried placing an 8. after Date: 8. however that does not show the date

Re: Date showing as numeric at input

SASKiwi — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 01:50:57 GMT

We can't help unless you post what your date input data looks like and the actual full code that is reading it.

Re: Date showing as numeric at input

ballardw — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 15:45:06 GMT

@Q1983 wrote:

%LET inputlist= INPUT

State : $CHAR2.

Servicer : $CHAR25.

Date : /*$CHAR10.

The above is a snippet of code. It handles input from a share folder in which the date is inputted as a numeric. However because it is not recognized as an actual date the field shows a blank for that value. The only way I know around this is to read it in as a character then attempt to convert to a date. Is there a way to convert this to a date at initial input instead? I tried placing an 8. after Date: 8. however that does not show the date

Depending on your source file format, practically anything not binary such as txt or CSV or tab delimited or fixed column, should not have a problem reading values using a format if you know which variable and which the format should be.

It might be as simple as using an INFORMAT statement before the input. It is a good idea to assign a display format as well so you aren't asking is 21347 the right value.

informat datevar date9. ;

format datevar date9.;

input <variables> datevar <more variables>;